Posts Tagged ‘Boston’

When my kids were small, they’d cover their eyes and think that because they couldn’t see the world, the world couldn’t see them. It was cute. It’s not so cute when the President of the United States does it though.

President Obama told Americans repeatedly that al Qaeda was “on the run.” Even the day after four Americans were murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Obama told supporters in Las Vegas, “a day after 9/11, we are reminded that a new tower rises above the New York skyline, but al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and bin Laden is dead.” On September 18 and numerous other occasions, Obama said al Qaeda had been “decimated.” He continued the War-on-Terror-is-so-over-I-won’t-even-use-the-word-terror theme throughout his campaign.

Unfortunately, as many of us knew at the time, and as the Boston Marathon bombings made clear, that’s not true. No matter how gifted a speaker Barack Obama believes himself to be, he cannot will something to be true simply by saying it out loud.

It appears that the Obama Administration’s strict denial of reality is also partly to blame for the FBI and intelligence failures surrounding the Boston bombings. Following a September 2011 story in Wired Magazine, “FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims are ‘Violent, Radical,’” 57 Muslim advocacy groups wrote a letter to Obama Administration officials complaining about “the federal government’s use of biased, false and highly offensive training materials about Muslims.” Instead of asking why these groups weren’t directing their energy towards the jihadists around the world who use the Quran to incite violence and murder thousands of innocent people, Obama’s people promptly “pulled more than 700 documents and 300 presentations,” scrubbing from its counterterrorism training mentions of Islam, Muslim, Hamas, and jihad—which is now referred to as “violent extremism.” Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism specialist with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tells the Washington Times, “the fact is, religion has been expunged from counterterrorism training. The FBI can’t talk about Islam and can’t talk about jihad.”

Well, if the Commander-in-Chief is claiming the War on Terror is over and you remove Muslim extremism as a red flag then it’s no wonder the FBI missed the fact that jihadist Tamerlan Tsarnaev posed a threat to America. Obama wants Islam and terrorism not to be connected, so he ties the hands of our intelligence community and forces them to operate as if they aren’t. Does this make you feel safer?

The same disregard for reality can be found in his approach to domestic issues. As predicted by its opponents, the health care law has been disastrous. Even the author of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Max Baucus, sees “a huge train wreck coming down” with the law’s implementation. In a press conference yesterday however, an extraordinarily out-of-touch Obama said, “and there will be stories that can be written that say, oh, look, this thing is not working the way it’s supposed to, and this happened and that happened. And that’s pretty much true of every government program that’s ever been set up…But if we stay with it and we understand what our long-term objective is…if we keep that in mind, then we’re going to be able to drive down costs; we’re going to be able to improve efficiencies in the system; we’re going to be able to see people benefit from better health care. And that will save the country money as a whole over the long term.” No acknowledgement of the concerns expressed by small business people, no answers to questions raised by Senator Baucus and others. “Everything is fine because I say that it is fine. My presidency has been a roaring success because I want it to be.”

America is not safer, our economy is worse and the man charged with protecting us and leading our recovery says things like, “it’s not optimal,” and “glitches and bumps.”

My kids figured out that we could see them by the time they reached their 3rd birthday. It’s time for Barack Obama to uncover his eyes and see the world for what it is. Before he hurts our country even more.

It’s been a tragic week for America. Boston was terrorized during what is normally a joyous occasion – its annual marathon. The Boston Marathon is prestigious. You must qualify to enter. Runners dream about it. Even some who don’t want to run it, use its qualifying time as a benchmark when setting goals for other races. On Monday, for many athletes, their dream-come-true became a nightmare when two bombs went off near the finish line. At least three people are dead, with more than 100 injured.

Two days later, a fertilizer plant in Texas exploded. At this time, that tragedy doesn’t appear to involve criminal activity or terrorism. The explosion, which registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake, caused severe damage within a five-block radius. Dozens or more are feared dead and hundreds are injured.

Much of this blog, like all political blogs, focuses on what divides us. Not today. Our fellow Americans are hurting. We empathize with their sadness and fear and wish to soothe their pain. During times like these we often ask ourselves what we can do. We can donate blood, money, or time to charitable organizations. We can also be thankful for what we have. I’m thankful for my five wonderful children. I’m thankful for their good health and for my own. I’m thankful for the freedom we enjoy that is uniquely American. I’m thankful that I can make a living doing what I love, and that, in my small way, I’m helping preserve our American freedom for future generations including my own children.

What are you thankful for? In Boston on Wednesday night, many Bruins fan found a way to express their gratitude a mere two days after chaos struck their city – they sang the national anthem at the top of their lungs. You can hear the Boston accents while they sing with pride, with love, and with gratitude for the things that weren’t lost on Monday. They got back up together – and we can join them.

Robert Costa from National Review is reporting that a charter flight from Boston ended up in Janesville, WI today. That’s the current home of Representative Paul Ryan.

Here is the whole post:

Take note, veep watchers: Earlier today, a charter plane took off in Boston, stopped in Chicago, then flew to the tiny airport in Janesville, Wis. Janesville, of course, is the hometown of Representative Paul Ryan, a top vice-presidential contender. According to a source on the ground, the plane is still in Wisconsin.

Tomorrow morning, Mitt Romney will visit theUSS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va. For what it’s worth, Ryan is scheduled to be on vacation in Colorado.

You can track unusual charter flights at FlightAware, a useful website.